Sunday, March 27, 2011

Yup, you heard that right. So, what is this dangerous item. Actually, I went out looking for a spray nozzle for my garden hose. The last one we had was broken enough to spray water all over me.

I went to the local garden supply store and found an array of nozzles to choose from. But they all had the same warning label; "Warning, do not drink wager from this nozzle, contains lead." They also all said "Made in China." Big surprise.

Now I ask you, what purpose would you use a garden hose for that lead exposure would not be a hazard? Would you water your vegetable garden? Wash your car maybe? Fill your swimming pool? Water the lawn where your children and pets play?

The next thing I got to thinking about is how the government in all its wisdom was able to spend enough time and money to require these warning labels on items like this coming in from China. Yet I bet that even with the added cost, it is still cost prohibitive to make safe ones here in the USA. That about sums up what so-called "free trade" has done. We import toxic goods, home products, pet food, toys, you name it, from China, send trillions of dollars their way in a complete trade imbalance, and close down factories here sending more people onto different sorts of government assistance. Then we borrow from China to pay our debts for our bloated government spending on countless failed programs, like helping families with learning disabled children from, well, lead exposure?

Who is representing the good citizens of the USA? Who looks out for us? Certainly not the elected Congressmen who look the other way while these poison goods fill the shelves of Wal-Mart and Target. And certainly not the Chief Executives, the Presidents who talk about fair trade and insourcing during election cycles but then push for even more unfair and imbalanced trade deals once elected.

Nobody is watching out for Joe Citizen anymore, whether it's toys that sicken or choke kids, autos that are built with known lethal flaws, music and movies that are pirated, or social media that's censored, we have a dysfunctional government that just goes along and instead grabs our attention with divisive issues and phony wars to keep our attention off what they're really doing, or not doing.

When will the citizenry finally awake and see what's really going on? Maybe only when it's too late.